Once again, I began researching and taste testing to develop this copycat recipe. When the dish was perfect, I hosted an awesome party and invited my friends to partake in a burrito bar starring our Chipotle's Copycat Barbacoa.

What is Barbacoa?

It's tender and moist seared beef, braised in an incredible blend of adobo, lime, cumin, garlic and oregano that come together to blow away any barbacoa you have ever tasted.

Helpful tips for making crockpot barbacoa:

Rinse the uncooked roast in cold water and pat dry. This helps keep the meat from steaming and allows it to sear so you get an amazing flavor and crisp coating on the outside of the roast.

To prepare the sauce without a blender, mince the garlic and chipotle peppers. Combine sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix until well combined.

Do not use non-stick pans for searing. Cast iron or stainless steel are great alternates to the dutch oven.

Sear the meat before placing it in the slow cooker. As a result, it adds another layer of flavor. While you can skip this step, I highly recommend taking the extra 15 minutes to do it. Trust me the flavor is worth it!

EQUIPMENT FOR MAKING BARBACOA

Slow Cooker - the slow cooker is almost my most used kitchen appliance, especially during fall/winter! It's just so convenient, and lets face it, it makes comfort food taste even better!

Dutch oven - I love this set and use it all the time. It is perfect for roasts and I especially love it for my one-pot meals.

Tongs - I love this set of 3. I use every pair of them. They are so handy and grip amazingly well!

Watch this video to see how easy barbacoa is to make!

Copycat Chipotle Barbacoa Recipe

Seared beef is slow cooked in a spectacular spicy adobo sauce with a combination of flavors that create the perfect moist and tender Mexican shredded beef.

prep time: 15 mins cook time: 6 hours total time: 6 hours and 15 mins

Ingredients

2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided

3-4 pound chuck roast, fat trimmed

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 bay leaves

Sauce

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

6 cloves garlic

4 teaspoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoons ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground clove

4 chipotle peppers (from a can, packed in adobo sauce)

1 tablespoon adobo sauce (from the chipotle pepper can)

1 cup chicken broth (or 1 cup water and 1 teaspoon chicken base)

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

Instructions

Prepare roast. Make sure all visible fat is trimmed. Rinse the uncooked roast in cold water and pat dry with paper towels. This helps keep the meat from steaming and allows it to sear so you get an amazing flavor and crisp coating on the outside of the roast. Cut into 8 chunks. Sprinkle all sides of cut beef with ½ of the salt (1 teaspoon), reserving the remaining 1 teaspoon. Set aside.

In a blender or food processor combine the sauce ingredients. Blend until smooth. Set aside. If you do not have a food processor or blender, see cook’s note.

Warm a Dutch oven or heavy bottom pot over medium-high heat, until water dripped over top sizzles. Add the oil. Sear all sides of cut beef. Don’t skip this step. We are adding layers of flavor here. Once the roast is nicely seared with a good crust, remove it from the Dutch oven and place it in your slow cooker. Set slow cooker temperature to high. Pour the blended sauce over top. Add bay leaves. Cook for 5-6 hours on high (or 8 hours on low) covered.

After about 5 hours (or 7 hours on low) shred beef using 2 forks to pull it apart. Taste, and add additional teaspoon of salt (as needed), stir to completely coat in sauce. Cover and cook for 1 more hour. After this time you can serve and enjoy or turn slow cooker to warm until ready to serve.

To create burrito: Layer* pico de gallo, Chipotle’s Copycat Cilantro Lime Rice and Chipotle’s Copycat Barbacoa on a large flour tortilla. Additional toppings of Chipotle’s Copycat Guacamole, sour cream and cheddar cheese are also exceptional. *Click on link for recipes

Serve and enjoy!

DONNA'S NOTES

To prepare the sauce without a blender, mince the garlic and chipotle peppers. Combine sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix until well combined.

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113 comments:

We were excited to find your barbacoa recipe that is like Chipotle's and even more excited to see the other items you have developed to go with it too! Now we are planning our next office party like the bar you did and think it will be great. Thanks for the great recipe's;-)

Wow, we have served this recipe to our Chipotle lovin' southwestern friends many times and it is always amazing. I am sorry to hear you had trouble. I would be more than happy to walk you through the recipe and see where it went wrong.

Hi Donna, I made this earlier tonight, and loved it! I have a question though: I have a bunch of boneless skinless chicken breast laying around, and was wondering if I could substitute that for the chuck?

Loved the recipe, but will try cutting down on the chipotles next time. I loved it, but spice-phobic hubs was spice phobic. My son who claims to hate spicy at a lot of it, though (as well as the cilantro lime rice). We served ours as burrito bowls/salads as we didn't have tortillas large enough for the burritos.

I've made the barbacoa about 4 times now, and it's been delicious every time, and so tender. For a friend who likes his barbacoa spicy I sometimes add an extra chipotle pepper, but for me the recipe as written is just right. I love to serve it with the Cilantro Lime Rice.

Oh that's easy. I've been making it for years. I use 4 cans corn (drained), about 1/2 bunch cilantro (chopped), 1 jalapeno (seeded and finely chopped), about 1/4 medium red onion (finely chopped). Combine. Add freshly ground black pepper, about 1/4 teaspoon salt (to taste) and....the secret ingredient....about 2 to 3 tablespoons sugar (to taste). I always get compliments on it when I take it to potluck dinners. Sorry for all the "about" and "to taste" but that's how I cook. :-)

Both are great(beef & Pork) or mix them up together....Mexican restrurants will usually give you a choice of "Beef or Pork" in any recipe ...I'm more a "pork girl", when it comes to these or enchillatas...

Thanks for sharing the recipe! Tried all the side dishes too. All tasted awesome! My 11 yr old son gave it a thumbs up and said it was better than the Chipotle version. Sharing the recipe w/my family and friends.

I agree... I used 4 peppers and 1tlb spoon of the sauce from the can... yikes! My mouth is on FIRE! I will try just 2 peppers next time.... my lips are burning I am in pain.... also i have copy cat this recipe from other sites before too...so not my first time

Same here, made it tonight, followed the recipe exactly (4 peppers plus 1 T of sauce) and it was too spicy, I actually have burns on my lips from eating a small nibble of it (taste testing before putting it on the dinner table). Smells great though, just incredibly spicy. If you like things extra spicy/hot, you'd probably like it. Next time I'd only do 1 pepper and half the sauce maybe??

Thank you for this recipe a total addictive hit in my family,it's expensive sometimes to go out and get Chipotle with a single income families of 6,this is so wonderful, and the great things you can do with the leftovers ,burritos, tostadas with beans and the meat topped with lettuce,or sopes.....so versatile.

Tastes good with 1stp ofsalt but I am glad Ionly added 2 chipotle peppers and not 4. Might be too spicy for my small men (they'll get extra sour creme) but it is good for the adults. Thank you for sharing.

I loved this! I put it over a pork butt (had to get it used up) and it was so good! My linebacker boyfriend even loved it! I ate mine as a lettuce wrap with some cilantro, lime, and a little extra salsa!

OK, just thought I would add some facts. First off barbacoa is sheep, or mutton, cooked in a hole in the ground and has nothing like chipotle or the other ingredients. It is very tender mutton served for tacos, burritos or however you want to eat it. It's served with a consume made from the juices of the meat. It has nothing to do with beef or chipotle. It's also not mexican barbecue, it has nothing to do with barbecue. Common misconception of those in the us. What chipotles is calling barbacoa is not, it's shredded beef seasoned in chipotle sauce. We have shredded beef in chipotle sauce at home here in mexico, but it's totally different. Barbacoa you serve it's just meat, you make taco's, etc, add chopped onion, cilantro, salsa, etc. and eat with the consume. Nothing to do with barbecue. Just setting the record straight, there's a lot of mexican food in the us that is not really mexican food or misnamed as is this.

Bud, Relax. It's a burrito place. No one is claiming it's the epitome of authentic Mexican cuisine.

And you're wrong, Barbacoa most certainly can be beef. Beef tongue and cheek Barbacoa is a staple in most Sunday breakfast for Mexican households at either side of the Texas boarder. YOU'RE region might do it different, but that's how cuisine works. Which is why in US America we also have a name for barbecue (derives from Barbacoa), and practically each region does it WAY different too.

Its origins are from the METHOD, yes, but cultural influences change as well, so you have that too.

I never, ever comment on anything. Ever. But, this recipe needs to be praised. We've moved away from our beloved Chipotle and miss the barbacoa. I tried a few other copy cat recipes I found online and it just wasn't right. This recipe, however, nailed it. It tasted exactly like Chipotle (and I was lazy and didn't brown the meat). While this technically isn't barbacoa in the truest sense, it is in the Chipotle sense. If you're looking for an authentic "barbacoa" this isn't it. If you're looking for a Chipotle barbacoa, then this is the ONLY recipe to use. Thank you!

Made this tonight with the rice. Family loved it. Rave reviews from all my guys. I've never eaten at a Chipotle before so I can't compare but we loved it. I just need to learn to not put so much in each burrito. :-)

As a broke college student with none of the ingredients needed for this in my pantry, it was quite the investment ($50) but so worth it! I made the cilantro-lime rice too and made tacos, can't wait to use the leftovers tomorrow (and the rest of the week) for burrito bowls! And can't wait till next time when it's not so expensive to make because i'll already have the basic ingredients! Thanks!

Made this last night. Came out great..however, one thing that occurred to me was how much flavor was left behind in the fond in the pan used to sear the meat. Next time I might try using a dutch oven rather than a slow cooker so I can cook in the same pot that the meat was browned in. Either that or pour the chicken stock into the pan after browning the meat to deglaze it and use this to make the sauce.

^^^ I am doing exactly this; I seared the meat (60 oz chuck roast with 10 oz fat removed!) in a Dutch oven, used the stock to deglaze it, add the sauce and mixed well, added the meat and the juices from standing, and tucked in the bay leaves. I'm going to cook it (covered) in the oven for 3.5-4 hours at 275. I'm sure it will come out great--smells delicious already.

I don't know if I just got a super-fatty chuck roast, but are there any other cuts of meat that will work well for this recipe?

Made this last week with pork and was great!! I used the whole can (small) of chipotles and Adobe as I didn't have a use for the rest of the can and didn't want to waste it. Was probably 6-7 peppers and it came out perfect! I didn't have clove so ommited that as well. Plan to make it again!

Well, I've never eaten at Chipotle's, although there is one about 10 miles away. But I made this yesterday and WOW! Now my mouth is watering just thinking about it and I'll be fixing up the (very few) leftovers in just a minute. I made the whole deal. Once again, Donna, I'm grateful to you down to my socks!

I would think you could freeze half of this. At my house, I have to double it. 2 kids of my own, two extra kids, a husband, and I will have a stray friend or two show up when word gets around I'm making this. 😄

THANKS so much for this recipe!! It was a great one and definitely lived up to its copy cat tastes. WE ate it as a burrito bowl the black beans, lime rice ( mrs Dash fiesta lime seasoning) , avocado, mild fresh salsa with a bag of thawed frozen corn added a squeeze of lime juice and chopped romaine--- SUPER delish-- my kids rated t an 8.5 out of 10 but said if I had chips with it -- 10

I am so happy to hear you all loved it! I love the burritos bowls with pinto beans, I am going to have to try black beans next time I make it and you will be happy to know I have the roasted chili-corn salsa coming up soon. Thanks for stopping by.

Any idea on how to make Chipotle's Medium Green Tomatillo Salsa??? That is the only thing I am missing now LOL I am super addicted to Chipotle. I am going to try all of these recipes. My favorite go to is the chicken burrito bowl with black beans and lots of the green salsa.

It is on my list, Lisa! I love it too. Promise it is coming soon. It is a bit of work, but sooo worth it. I am hooked on the barbacoa and the carnitas, but I am going to try the chicken bowl next time now that you mentioned it. Enjoy the recipes and let me know how it goes.

I would love to try this recipe but I do not like very spicy food I have just acquired a taste for foods with just a hint of spice.could you tell me what to omit or what ingredients I could use less of to achieve less spice without ruining the overall outcome.

I do not find this to be too spicy. The chipotle peppers and adobo are adding the heat and flavor, so I would cut the chipotle peppers down to 2. That will make this recipe very mild (but will also effect the flavor), so try not to reduce them by too much. Enjoy and let us know how it goes!

I just made this with only 2lbs of meat. It turned out incredible. Tastes better than chipotle. My boyfriend doesn't like spicy food, so I just used 1 tablespoon of the adobo sauce from the can, and left out the chilies completely and it worked great. Just enough spice from the adobo sauce!

Thank you for posting this! Today I just made Sonoran Style shredded beef. (AZ native, been away and miss it) It was ok and now with finding yours I can just make this one cuz I do love Chipotles Barbaccoa! Recipe is very similar with added lime and more dry spice.. I look forward to it! Thanks!!

I made this today and the flavor is so complex it is unreal. It made the best street-style soft taco I have ever eaten. I followed this recipe exactly and it is amazing, just like Chipotle, but somehow even better. Thank you so much for this fantastic recipe!

I have made this recipe more times than I can count, it is ALWAYS fabulous. Even my kiddos (2, 4 and 6) enjoy it, and my in laws and own parents have frequently requested it for family dinners. I also make the cilantro lime rice, corn salsa, and guac (but I add salsa to mine) and it's seriously the bomb. Please keep making copycat recipes!! Haha :-)